Illustration Friday - Toy

Lucy Loves Ducky

8.5 x 8.5 inches

Watercolor and Sharpie Pen

Playing with toys is a sign of intelligence, and all of the higher order animals do it; elephants to whales to dogs and cats.  The tendency for humans and animals to continue to play well into adulthood is both a learning activity as well as a stress reliever.  My border collie Lucy thinks it is just plain fun.

Illustration Friday - Stir

 

Stir the stars with a silver spoon,

and say "goodnight" to the waning moon.

The Sandman sings in the willow tree,

Ta Loo Ra La, Ta Loo Ra Lee.

I almost gave up on developing an idea for this week's word.  It just wasn't inspiring me and everything I could come up with seemed cliche or trite.  I'm not sure if this is any different/better, but this little quatrain kept swimming around in my head, so I finally decided it was worth pursuing.  Who knows maybe it will develop into a full fledged poem some day.

I am including the initial rough sketch.  There are a few things about it that I actually prefer.  Also the scanner fails to pick up some of the pale color shifts and value changes that are in the actual color version. :(

Foreshortening can be an interesting challenge!

Illustration Friday - Swarm

Queen Bee

Ink,  marker and watercolor on mat board
4x6 inches

Wow!  It has been too long since I have participated in Illustration Friday and I am having serious withdrawal.  I may have to commit to another 1 year goal to make sure that I stay motivated to keep it up.  

This is just a quick one this week, but it had me thinking about the zen of being at one with nature.  Nature and I have a love hate relationship.  I consider myself something of a nature girl, but become literally depressed when things don't grow and flourish in the ways I envision.  We have had terrible drought conditions here in Texas for at least four of the six years that we have been back.  I have had very little success at growing anything.  OK, in reality I have a black thumb.  My husband commented on it just yesterday when I was fondling the plants in the garden department at Lowe's.  But despite my general ineptitude with growing things, I have always been happiest outside, breathing in fresh country air.  And I like to think that I will eventually get better at nurturing nature, if I just keep at it.  (And don't forget to water)

I remember being particularly concerned about the state of the natural world a couple of years ago when I heard that bees were disappearing.   Apparently a bee virus was decimating bee colonies, but they seem to be making a comeback.  I am still pretty upset about the fact that I haven't seen a firefly in several years.  No one really knows what has happened there.  But on the positive side, ground dwelling birds have returned to East Texas.  I have been seeing road runners and killdeer again for several seasons now.  Apparently the fire ants are finally finding a balance.  That is the thing about nature, isn't it?  It always finds balance.  How Zen!

Illustration Friday #52! - Breakfast

IHOP Breakfast

water media on rag paper, 9 x 12

ONE FULL YEAR OF ILLUSTRATION FRIDAY!

This weeks illustration is my 52nd consecutive weekly submission to Illustration Friday, meaning I have reached my goal of participating for a full year!  This week's word was a bit of a bonus since it gave me an excuse to visit my favorite breakfast restaurant, The International House of Pancakes, or as most Americans know it, IHOP.  My husband John and I went for breakfast yesterday morning as a sort of mini celebration for having made it through the whole year.  

As you can see, I had one of my favorite selections, the stuffed french toast combo, with scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns,strawberry stuffed french toast, and ironically, a diet Coke. :) (I'm not a coffee drinker)  John had something called loaded minion taters that IHOP is promoting with the "Dispicable Me" movie that recently came out.  His came with a tater tot casserole, scrambled eggs, pancakes, and an added side of bacon.  

We came hungry.  We left happy!

Tyler Artwalk - June 18th, 4-8 pm

The June Tyler Artwalk hosted by the Downtown Tyler Arts Coalition and Gallery Main Street has come and gone.  Overall it was a very positive experience.   My exhibit consisted of 7 acrylic paintings, 1 watercolor, 4 colored pencil drawings and an alabaster sculpture.   I had a much larger space than the 10 x 10 square feet I was told to expect which was nice because it gave people an opportunity to move through the exhibit more easily.  I shared a large upstairs loft space with two other artists and a lady who volunteered to set up a photography exhibit from the recent Azalea Trail Photography Competition.  People started trickling in about 4:30 in the afternoon and by 5:00 there was a steady stream of visitors until the end of the exhibit.  The only downside was the heat, the building we were in had a less than adequate cooling system, so we ended up with three big room fans to try and keep the temperatures bearable.  Also there was no elevator to the space, only stairs.

I met lots of really nice people though, including a future art teacher looking for employment, and a high school art teacher from Pittsburgh, Texas.   I received a visit from a couple of my former art students from Lindale. and found out at the end of the event. that another former Lindale student, Megan Bryant, was actually part of the exhibit at the Main Street Gallery.

I did have one critic, an elderly gentleman named Elihu Edelson who told me I was a better sculptor than painter.  I smiled and agreed with him.  He said that he had been an art critic for a newspaper when he lived in Florida.  He was charming nonetheless and the conversation became even more interesting when he asked me if I was mystical.  I then heard a long tale about how he ended up in Texas.

It was a lovely evening.

Illustration Friday - Trail

Trail of Destruction

7 x 13 inches

watercolor

OK, so obviously skyscapes have been on my brain lately and I wanted to do something this week that would leave me with a potentially framable finished piece.  I started thinking of all the possible types of trails I could come up with, trail of tears, trail of dust, hiking trails, happy trails..... When trail of destruction hit me, tornadoes were the first thing I thought of.  I found a really great website called Mother Nature Network that has a top 10 tornado video list.  My personal favorite was #9 (Most Beautiful Tornado Ever)  Even though this painting is not particularly inspired by that video, I may ultimately have to do another painting.  It took my breath away.

Illustration Friday - Subterranean

The Elusive Subterranean Parakeet

watercolor and pen

I had a little observational inspiration for this week's word.  My husband, son and I  went to the Tyler Zoo on Saturday.  I had it in my head to keep my eyes open for a critter that might make a good subject for "subterranean" but it turned out to be the most unlikely candidate that I could have imagined.  In the " Wild Bird Walkabout" there was a little parakeet madly excavating a good sized hole under the edge of a rock.  Parakeets are known to hollow out trees and logs for their nests, but this may be the the first to choose a subterranean abode.  I think she knows that it will be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, and that she won't have to worry about termite damage later on down the road. :)

Below is a short clip of video that I took of her while she was working.

Illustration Friday - Confined

Hell hath no fury like a confined fairy.

watercolor and pen

click illustration to enlarge

A pretty straightforward interpretation this week.  This little guy is as mad as a hornet.  I hate to think of the curses and plots for revenge that he is cooking up for his captor.  I have never viewed fairies as sweet delightful little creatures.  They have always been more mischievous and tricksy in my imagination.  Perhaps we should offer him some honey as a gesture of friendship and set him free in the clover patch before he explodes.

Illustration Friday - Renewal

Is It Spring Yet?

watercolor and colored pencil

4" x 6"

A last minute submission this week.  Honestly, I wasn't feeling very inspired by this week's word even though it fits the time of year well.  But with the country currently in the grip of an Arctic chill, visions of spring have been dancing around in my daydreams.  We don't have crocuses here in Texas, but I lived in Wisconsin for about a year and a half, and these brave little flowers amazed me with their determination to bloom right through the snow pack.  Spring was nowhere else in sight, but these bright purple and yellow flowers were right there anyway in the little flower bed in front of my house.  They were truly the first sign that the thaw was beginning and the return of sun and green were around the corner.  A fitting symbol for renewal, I think.

Illustration Friday - Music

 

Behind Closed Doors

hand colored etching

Music is part of what makes us human and we learn to love it at an early age.  I performed many of these solo, audienceless concerts when I was growing up, and I admit to still being a compulsive car radio singer.  People who see me driving down the road probably think I am insane, but I NEED to sing and sing out loud!

I admit to a slight cheat this week.  I took an early stage of an old etching and added watercolor to emphasize the figure a little better.  So it only reached this finish state today, but its not technically a brand new piece.  In my defense, I have 23 people showing up at my house tomorrow morning and Thanksgiving is only a vacation for those who don't have to cook :).  Regardless, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It is all about family and gratefulness for blessings.  It also crosses religious and cultural boundaries that otherwise tend to divide us as a nation.   I truly love Thanksgiving and I hope you all have a wonderful, love (and food) filled holiday.

The Owl and the Pussy Cat

2.5 x 3.5 inches ATC

mixed media

The Owl and the Pussycat

by Edward Lear

 The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are,
What a beautiful Pussy you are."

Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"
 Said the Piggy, "I will"
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Illustration Friday - Flying

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”  Freidrich Nietsche  

 

This was the quote that came with this week's word in the illoannounce e-mail.  It inspired me to consider a literal look at the struggle of learning to fly.  We have lots of  bluebird, cardinal, and swallow babies at our house each summer and it is always exhilarating when they finally leave their nests.  

Click the picture to make it bigger.

 

Illustration Friday - Germs

A Good Day

The surest way to keep your kids healthy and boost their immune system, is to let them eat a little dirt.

I was the female version of this kid when I was growing up, and aside from being accident prone, I am really a rather healthy adult.  Age is starting to catch up with me though.  I sure wish there was a cure for that.

Illustration Friday - Infinite

Where does the infinite hide?

I'll tell you true, I cannot lie.

You'll find it there.

Look deep

down in the glistening depths

of a cat's eye.

This weeks IF submission had me stumped for a while.  The infinite is a tricky thing to describe, and perhaps it is not a truly describable concept. Rather, it is something to be sought and understood according to the perspective of the individual.  Anyway, I got very philosophical about the whole thing and this is ultimately what I ended up with.  Below are some quotes that pushed me in this general direction.

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience. - Leonardo DaVinci
Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is  nowhere. - Blaise Pascal
In natures infinite book of secrecy a little I can read. - Shakespeare

Click the picture to see it bigger.

More trading cards

ColourLovers Challenge "Japan"

These are cards made for a group swap where swap members had to work from the same limited color pallet.  The name of the pallet for my group was Japan, so I used that as a theme for my images.  It could have been anything though.  Color was the only restriction.

Illustration Friday - Welcome

 

Papillon  Welcome

You're home, You're home,You're home,You're home!

I'm so happy happy happy happy to see you!

You've been gone all day,

I didn't think I would ever see you again!

I can't believe you're home!

Welcome home!

I'm so happy happy happy happy to see you!

I LOVE YOU!

etc. and so on.... this is the somewhat ecstatic welcome home I get every day.  Not in so many words of course , but in wags and wiggles and vertical bounces, it translates pretty closely.  Now if I can just get the cat off of my laptop keyboard maybe I can finally post this weeks IF submission. :)

click pic to make it bigger.

Illustration Friday: Caution

"Swim at Your Own Risk!"

Here is my crack at Illustration Friday's topic "Caution." I had a lot of fun with the idea even though I'm not completely happy with the execution. I find that I am more prone to inking an illustration when I am not satisfied with the early results. I am more likely to keep it a simple watercolor or gouache painting if it is going well early in the process.

Today was the first day back at school, and so far it looks like I have a pretty good group of kids. For a first day activity we played a drawing game called "The Exquisite Corpse." It was a fun little collaborative assignment, that kept things light and easy. If you have never played it before, do a quick Google search to learn how to play and give it a try with some of your friends.

Illustration Friday- Wrapped

"No Lulu! Bad Kitty!"

Click pic to make it bigger

This is illustration Friday submission #4. I felt a little rushed on this one, but I like the overall feel of the image. There are a lot of bright blue shadows on the TP that just got washed out in the scan.

Teachers are back at school this week getting ready for kiddos next Monday. It will only get busier as the school year gets going so I will have to figure out where this self-imposed assignment will fit in. Right now I am using the time that Todd is at Band practice to work on IF assignments, make artist trading cards and go to the gym. I am signed up for a series of illustrated cards based on a chimerical animal. Since I just did a project at art camp based on mixed up animals, I figured I would stick with the little Toucan/Lobster... "Toubster" that I already created. I will post the ATCs here when they are complete.

Illustration Friday: Impatience

It takes ten to twelve days for a Monarch butterfly to emerge from it's chrysalis.

This is my 3rd Illustration Friday submission and even though I don't like to toot my own horn, this one is my favorite by far. Probably because the little boy so closely resembles my son Todd who is now 14. I am also including the original sketch that I drew yesterday. Sometimes I prefer the immediacy of the original idea even more than the finished piece.

Click on the pictures to see 'em bigger.